Adam Gase not concerned about rash of injuries to Jets offensive line

Adam Gase didn’t sound overly concerned that his projected starting offensive line won’t practice together until less than a week before the regular-season opener.

Right guard Brian Winters (shoulder), left guard Kelechi Osemele (pectoral) and Brandon Shell (knee) have been sidelined for various lengths of time due to injuries. Center Ryan Kalil practiced for the first time Sunday since coming out of retirement.

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The uneven summer has prompted fair questions about whether the guys in the trenches will be ready when the games actually matter.

“With guys that have experience, it’s always less time (to gel)," Gase said Tuesday. “If you had a bunch of young guys up front, then it might take a little bit more time to get used to the kind of calls and how each other operates. But when you got veteran players, those guys just seem to just gel quicker.”

Brian Winters is among the Jets walking wounded up front in the trenches. (Adrian Kraus/AP)

Osemele, who didn’t play in the second preseason game last week after suffering a pec strain in practice, won’t practice on Tuesday. Gase is hopeful that the veteran will be back later in the week. Shell, who was a late scratch in Atlanta, will do individual drills on Monday.

“There was nothing structurally wrong,” Gase said. “His foot got caught in the turf in warmups. It probably made us all a little nervous. We wanted to be safe with that.”

Kalil will have ample time to get back into game shape and get in sync with Sam Darnold, but Winters remains the biggest question mark after suffering a shoulder injury in the preseason opener. He’s not expected to practice until the run-up to the regular-season opener against the Bills on Sept. 8. Winters played much of the 2017 season after suffering a shoulder injury in September. (He underwent surgery after the season).

“Right now, everything’s looking good,” Gase said of Winters’ prospects for Week 1. “Brian is an old-school tough guy. He just works hard. He’s trying to get his body where it needs to be for Week 1. It sounds like everything’s on track and looks good. I can’t tell you until we get through those practices of that week. The good thing is that everything looks like he’s going to be able to practice for the first week of the season when we get ready for Buffalo. So, we’ll have a really good idea where he’s at.”

Outside linebacker Harvey Langi, who flashed at camp before suffering a knee injury a couple weeks ago, returned to practice.

Gase altered the structure of practice to reflect a typical schedule during the regular season. Starters have been told to prepare to play one series into the third quarter against the Saints on Saturday night. Gase said that starters could be pulled as early as the middle of the second quarter depending on the flow of the game.